More and more I find myself doing things I wouldn’t have before. If we think of “before” as 10 years ago that’s a lot of things. The cause is without doubt the Internet, which provides both the possibility and the means to do things differently. From simple, convenience things like shopping to big, holistic things like completely changing your lifestyle.
Last week for example I watched a video tutorial on music production by a well known producer. The fact that such a thing is available at all is in itself pretty incredible but is now taken for granted. We can find anything we want online after all. But this video made me do several things I would never have done 10 years ago.
I bought an acoustic guitar online
I did that on the strength of a video shot by someone I’d never heard of
I researched the best one to buy for the purpose online NOT by visiting several music stores and trying loads of guitars under the watchful eyes of sales people.
Here’s why I did these things.
Changing Your Tune Changes Everything
The tutorial was on recording acoustic guitars and introduced a music industry “best kept secret”. It revealed how some of those incredibly lush sounding acoustic guitar tracks heard on records over the years were achieved.
The initial guitar parts are recorded using a good guitar, played well with good, well placed microphones. I knew this. But then the parts are played again with a cheap guitar fitted with 4 of the high (octave) strings from a 12 string guitar. This is known as Nashville or high strung tuning. I didn’t know this.
The results as demonstrated by the producer are fabulous. It sounds better than a 12-string guitar, which is actually quite difficult to play and record well. I instantly decided I wanted to do this. I didn’t however want to keep changing strings on my existing acoustic guitar. Obviously a second guitar, dedicated to this set up was needed.
So with that in mind I did some research online around what would be a good, cheap guitar to buy. One clear favourite – The Yamaha F310 – emerged. There were loads for sale on Ebay and after a losing out on a few I won my bid on one the next day.
A Lot Can Change In Ten Years
Now 10 years ago I wouldn’t have dreamt of buying an acoustic guitar online. These things are easily damaged after all. On an auction site you only have the seller’s word and few pictures to go on as regards its condition and how well it will be packaged for delivery. These days that does not bother me. Ebay, Amazon et al have good refund and return policies.
In the early days of the Internet buying something online was considered a risky move. You’d worry about credit card security more than anything else. Now we do it almost daily through secure portals like Paypal and online banking.
The same goes for the community side of things. I’m more than happy to do my product research online rather than on foot. I read reviews and watch videos from people who have little or nothing to gain by my purchase. Quite quickly I find I’m able to compile a shortlist and whittle it down. I’ve done this with everything from cameras to cars (and now guitars). On the other hand I’ve been ripped off and messed around with by many big, featureless corporations.
Retuning Your Mindset
This is a good example of how your mindset can change as new technology advances. This can lead to complete changing your lifestyle. It’s a kind of evolution. The Internet is a vast and diverse community – almost a parallel universe – and as such it offers a fabulous platform for self-reinvention. Not just musically as in this example but completely.
I often use guitar metaphors to highlight the power of changing your mindset. This Nashville tuning is one as are various alternate guitar tunings. When you’ve played with one tuning for decades its easy to get stuck in a rut. Completely changing the musical landscape just opens up unexplored, fabulous opportunities. Sometimes they can send you off in incredible new directions.
The same applies to lifestyle ruts. Some years ago after a redundancy I decided to explore what might be possible in terms of earning a living on the Internet. That journey has been incredible and led to me changing my lifestyle entirely.
My introduction to those possibilities came through a series of free videos. As with the music industry insider secret I talked about above, these videos revealed a lot of insider secrets (truths) about the making money online game.
You can subscribe for them on the link below.
